- My wallet. - My cell phone. - Keys to the house and car. - A backpack containing the following: - iPod. - A couple of magazines. - The book I'm reading. - An umbrella. (I have to get a new one; yesterday's wind and rain destroyed my old one.) - A baseball cap. (Mostly to cover my head. Usually I wear Cubs, White Sox, Bears, or Northern Illinois. When in Rome...) - Aspirin and allergy pills. (Always useful.) - A pack of Life Savers. (Usually Five Flavors.) - A couple of pens and a pad. Because you never know.
Let me explain the last one.
In December 1993, I had just started back as a senior production manager at St. Martin's Press (still the best job ever). I was working almost exclusively on Tor Books, a primarily science fiction house that SMP owns, but operates fairly independently. Tor had just launched a new imprint, Forge, for the books that weren't technically SF, horror, or fantasy. Still mostly fiction, but the occasional nonfiction book as well.
We were having a sales conference in Short Hills, NJ, which was launching the books that would appear in the Spring 1994 catalog. And the lead Forge title was The October Twelve, by Phil Rizzuto, former New York Yankee shortstop turned broadcaster, with Tom Horton. To promote the book, Rizzuto was appearing at the sales conference.
Oddly, the event Rizzuto was at didn't have many, if any, actual sales reps - I believe they were elsewhere at that point. No matter, however, Phil was going to promote the book. And he'd brought along a friend -- Yogi Berra. Right up front, they said they didn't really have a speech prepared; they would open the floor to questions.
Now, remember Phil and Yogi probably weren't aware of who they were talking to -- a room full of science fiction, fantasy, and horror editors and writers. If they knew the two of them at all, they knew Rizzuto from "Paradise From the Dashboard Light," and thought Yogi Berra was named after that cartoon character.
It quickly transpired that there were three people in the room who knew anything about baseball: the editor of the book (who would last another year), the president of the company, and me.
I don't remember what questions I asked, but I asked a lot of questions. And between the three of us, it went pretty well. And then they offered to sign autographs.
And I had brought nothing to write on, or with. No paper, no books, no newspaper, no nothing. The editor told me he'd get me a signed copy of the book, but I don't think that's coming at this point.
So I carry a couple of pens and a pad with me. Because you never know.
The Bee Gees, “Staying Alive,” #1 (four weeks), February 5, 1978 And here come the Bee Gees songs. In fairness, we’re starting out with the best of the bunch, and a seminal song of the era that’s still played regularly on oldies stations to this day. Not everybody loves it, but it’s still a classic. And it just may have kept some people alive, at that: NPR reported in 2010 the song’s 103 beats per minute (which keeps it far away from the disco standard of 126, by the way) is nearly the same as the the recommended chest compression rate of 100 per minute – so CMTs have been taught to keep the song in their head when they perform emergency duties.
Queen, “We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions,” #4, February 5, 1978 Another classic, but for entirely different reasons. Freddie Mercury wrote “We Are the Champions” with the idea of composing a song for use at football (soccer) matches, and it’s stuck. The pounding “We Will Rock You” made for a nice double A-side, with many stations simply putting the two songs back to back (at just over 5 minutes, it was a little longer than the average single song, but not ridiculously long – “Staying Alive,” for example, clocked in only about fifteen seconds shorter by itself). Cheers used “We Will Rock You” for a classic teaser shot; here's the link from writer Ken Levine (and the video as well).
Electric Light Orchestra, “Turn to Stone,” #13, February 5, 1978 First of four chart singles from the double album Out of the Blue, and arguably ELO at its peak. Easy to dance to, but still appealing to rock fans (unlike, say, “Shine a Little Love,” the lead single off the 1979 album Discovery). Although none of the singles hit the top 10 in the United States, Out of the Blue made it to #4 and went quadruple platinum. (In fairness, the RIAA counts each sale of a double album as two since there’s two LPs inside, so that skews it a bit.) Out of the Blue was my first ELO purchase in 1979 (for the astonishing price of $3.99 at Korvettes; that was quite something for a double LP that hadn’t been remaindered), later on I found out ELO sued their distributors for releasing defective copies at discount prices. For what it’s worth, my copy’s fine.
Bill Withers, “Lovely Day,” #30, February 5, 1978 The last of Bill Withers’ hits (excluding the Grover Washington Jr. song “Just the Two of Us,” for which he supplied lead vocals but didn’t get a credit on the sleeve), this song has had more covers and samples than I could possibly list – everything from a remake off The Bodyguard soundtrack to Luther Vandross to LL Cool J. But I love the original – this guy can really hold a note.
Donna Summer, “I Love You,” #37, February 5, 1978 Clever title for a song, eh? First single from her Once Upon a Time album (released just before her total chart dominance from the summer of ’78 through early spring of 1980, where there was a total of one week without a Summer song in the top 40), and not a big hit. Still a fun song to dance to (especially when paired with “Rumour Has It,” which I believe it was on a 12-inch disco disk), and a bit of an oddity lyrically: in the fourth verse, was the lyric written that way (repeating part of the third verse and not rhyming), or did Summer just blow the lyric and no one said “We have to do a retake”? This sort of stuff bothers the crap out of me. This video shows her appearing on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson, by the way.
George Duke, “Reach for It, “ #54, February 5, 1978 Late ‘70s funk from a guy who’s played with everyone from Frank Zappa to Jean-Luc Ponty. Ironically, for a song that features the chant “Dance!” over and over again (the only other lyrics are a spoken-word intro and the beginning and a quasi-rap at the end – almost two years before the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” broke), this isn’t a very danceable tune.
Heart, “Crazy on You,” #62, February 5, 1978 You would have thought this was a bigger hit, given it’s been a staple of classic rock stations since the early 1980s. (And deservedly so.) The Wilson sisters’ message, born in the post-Vietnam era, was that the couple in question should just forget all their other issues for one night and boink. (Nancy Wilson added the rapid-fire guitar parts were inspired by The Moody Blues’ “Question.”) “Crazy on You” was actually the first single off their debut album with Mushroom Records in 1976, Dreamboat Annie, and reached #35 at that time (the followup, “Magic Man,” would really launch their careers. Two years later, Heart had bailed for Portrait Records, a subsidiary of Epic/Columbia, after Mushroom unveiled a particularly repugnant advertising campaign that would lead the unknowing to believe the Wilson sisters were lovers, and Mushroom scraped up whatever they could to make more money off their one-album wonder. First up was an album of demos and whatever else was lying around, Magazine, which the band sued to have recalled (the band then rerecorded, remixed, and re-released it a year later). The second was this song’s rerelease. Mushroom Records (also home to late ‘70s Canadian bands such as Doucette and Chilliwack, as well as ex-Fairport Convention member Ian Matthews) went out of business in 1980; the two Heart albums are still in print with Capitol Records today. The video is from the 1970s show The Midnight Special, which NBC aired on Friday nights after Johnny Carson.
Gary Wright, “Touch and Gone,” #73, February 5, 1978 Yikes. Maybe you can have too many synthesizers on one record. Third consecutive flop single from Wright, after he’d had back-to-back #2 hits in 1976 with “Dream Weaver” and “Our Love Is Alive.” (No embeddable video available.)
Earth, Wind, and Fire, “Serpentine Fire,” #13, February 12, 1978 EWF was on such a hot streak during the late ‘70s; 13 Hot 100 hits, all but one of which made the top 40, and six top 10s – nearly all of which will still make you smile when they come on the radio. “Serpentine Fire,” the lead single for All ‘n All, conked out at #13, but it’s still a good one, and it’s easily recognizable and danceable despite the slightly jittery rhythm.
Neil Diamond, “Desiree,” #16, February 12, 1978 Another “boy becomes a man” song, this time courtesy of Mr. Diamond, who you’d think would have covered this territory before. Diamond’s singles track record had been spotty after leaving Uni Records for Columbia in 1973 – only “Longfellow Serenade” made the top 10 during those five years – so this was actually one of his bigger hits before the Barbra Streisand duet later that year.
The Commodores, “Too Hot ta Trot,” #22, February 12, 1978 Knockoff of their own “Brick House” hit that had gone top 5 three months before; this is the one studio track from Commodores Live!, and it probably goosed up the sales a bit, it’s nothing special – although it does provide a break on greatest hits sets between Lionel Richie ballads.
Johnny Rivers, “Curious Mind (Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um),” #41, February 12, 1978 30th (and, to date, last) chart single for Rivers. Geez, this guy was around forever – he first started hitting the charts around the same time as The Beatles. Most of his chart hits were covers, ranging from Chuck Berry’s “Maybelline” to Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic,” and of course this one was one as well (Major Lance did the original). Not the best arrangement ever, but still a decent song.
El Coco, “Cocomotion,” #44, February 12, 1978 Typical nearly wordless disco concoction of the era. Studio band led by W. Michael Lewis and Laurin Rinder. They had a few more Hot 100 hits under different names over the course of the year, so you’ll see them again soon, whether you want to or not.
Firefall, “So Long,” #48, February 12, 1978 They sound awfully chipper considering the relationship is ending, but that’s just the way the band is. Seventh Hot 100 hit from a group made up of remnants from such bands as The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and Jo Jo Gunne, and an inspiration for – well, when Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, and Chris Hillman (three-fifths of The Byrds) got back together as a trio, Firefall’s producers were brought in to helm their debut album.
